Good evening readers. Here's your round-up of today's must-read literary news, commentary and fiction.

Ahmed Naji faces final appeal: the Egyptian writer and author of The Use of Life is serving a two-year prison sentence for "violating public modesty" Hyperallergic
Writers respond to Trump: led by PEN America, writers and organizations have signed a pledge to defend the First Amendment Huffington Post
First literary loves: writers on the short list for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize think back to childhood, remembering the books that first inspired them Lit Hub
Authors as adjectives: from Joycean to Zolaesque, male authors' names have a long history of inspiring adjectives. It's time we start canonizing the leading female literary powerhouses The Times Literary Supplement
Living in airplane mode: Helena Fitzgerald reflects on the transformative power of life on the move Catapult
From "Whereas Statements": a poem by Matthew Zapruder responds to the 2009 congressional resolution of apology to Native Americans The New York Times
Last Girl Before Freeway: Sara Eckel reviews a new biography of Joan Rivers and considers the late cultural icon's feminism The Washington Post

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